12 Days Birding & Bird Photography Tours In Sabah, Borneo

Review of Swarovski Modular Spotting Scopes

94 species of birds in 1 day at Tabin Wildlife Reserve

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Addicted for action shots, I went to Sandakan and spent for few days photographing The Greenest Sevens In The World. Depending champion, Daveta from Fiji won for the 2nd time beating local team Borneo Eagles by 29-0. For more info, go to http://borneoeagles.com/borneo7s2013

Lok Kawi Park is managed by Sabah Wildlife Department and some of the wild birds found such as Rufous-collared Kingfisher, Banded and Black & Yellow Broadbill, Ashy Tailorbird, Rufous-bellied Eagle and many more. Other native wildlife such as Orang Utan,Bornean Gibbon, Proboscis Monkey and the smallest Bornean Pygmy Elephants

The workshop will emphasize the usage of the latest Swarovski STX 95 Spotting Scope and Digiscoping adapters the TLS APO built for mirrorless and DCB II for point and shoot cameras by Canon to capture still images and videos by participants during the workshop.

Friday, October 18, 2013

The day started at Mt. Kinabalu for few nights and upon arrival, saw the Whitehead's Spiderhunter through the scope at the same time the Sunda Cuckoo-Shrike were next to it, and only a brief view of few the fast moving Bare-headed Laughingthrush while it was drizzling along the Power Station road.

Unfortunately, bad weather continued until the 8th because of the typhoons from China and Korea, causing missing some of the common species at Mt. Kinabalu such as Bornean Forktail and Chestnut-crested Yuhina. Birds were quiet as well at Poring Hot Spring while looking for the Rafflesia flower.

On the 9th, good weather greeted everyone at the mountain and started the walk from Power Station down to Silau-Silau Trail. Along the way, managed to get the Golden-naped Barbet, nesting Pale-faced Bulbul, several Fruithunter and Mountain Blackeye.

Whitehead's Broadbill, one of the must see birds for visiting birdwatcher to Sabah

Unexpected bonus of Collared Owlet during daytime, a rare bird in North Borneo

Short flight to Sandakan on the 10th then took a van to Gomantong Cave. Saw few Bat Hawk chasing the bats near sunset also a pair of Rhinoceros Hornbill flew quite low then perched at one of the tree next to the office. While at Kinabatangan River, missed the Helmeted and White-crowned Hornbill. The response from Oriental Bay Owl one evening get things excited but after a while, it flew back deeper to the forest.

Close up view of Wallace's Hawk Eagle at Gomantong Cave

Pacific Swallow

Purple Heron

More than 10 pair of Rhinoceros Hornbill were seen coming in and out from these fruiting Fig tree together with the Long-tailed Macaque

At Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, some of the highlights were, Blue-headed Pitta, Bornean Banded Pitta and Black & Crimson Pitta seen along the access road. Giant Pitta was responding to my playback on the last evening but too far to get a view.

At one morning, while looking at the Yellow-eared Spiderhunter near the Canopy Walkway, Paul heard the Bornean Ground Cuckoo calling from the nearby hill. But after waited for 30 minutes, it went quiet and replaced by a pair of Asian Paradise Flycatcher just above my head.

Little Spiderhunter on top of the wild Ginger flower

My best images of this bird so far! Black & Yellow Broadbill

Marie were taking picture of the Pill Milipede

Very wet Whiskered Treeswift taken in front of the restaurant at Danum Valley

Yellow-bellied Bulbul

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

The elusive Bornean Bristlehead near the Canopy Walkway

Another endemic for North Borneo, Black-headed Pitta

Yellow-eared Spiderhunter seen feeding the seed from Alocasia that grows along the access road

The trip ended with a single Paddyfield's Pipit seen at Lahad Datu Airport after the downpour.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

I have been busy for the last few days with Snipes in my local patch, Tuaran after the recent Typhoon Usagi from Japan resulting of heavy wind plus rain almost everyday since Thursday the 26th September except for today.

Every time I see Snipe sp. in my place, I never bother to put an effort to observe because of the difficulty in identifying them. Except the last Common Snipe I saw at Penampang paddy field during in flight which showed the white line on the armpit.

But one particular Snipe sp. took my attention. It looked much paler than other Snipes I have seen before and quite bigger too. So I pointed my scope for pictures and videos. Thanks to the wide Field of View from Swarovski STX 95 scope even at maximum 70x, I could clearly see and Digiscoped exactly as seen from the eyepiece! Below is the results.

As you can see, the bird above show mostly pale plumage overall. I sent this pictures to Dave Bakewell, one of the prominent Waterbirds watchers in Penang and his first impression was of Japanese Snipe!

Emails was exchanged between experts in Japan and Australia where this bird breeds in Hokaiddo and Russia then spend the non-breeding season in Eastern Australia. Mostly were saying it looks like the Japanese Snipe.

Ok hold on... Only 3 Snipes were recorded in Borneo namely the Pintail, Swinhoe's and Common Snipe. If these pictures were reconfirmed to be the Japanese Snipe, as Dave mentioned to me, it could be the first record for Sabah, Borneo!